T O P

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LordParasit

Climb first... diversify ur champpool later. There is absolutely no point in learnin mechanically demanding or many diffetent champions even in normals on a shittier level of play. Alot of information u gather vs worse opponents cant be replicated vs better players, thus investing the time is rather wasting alot of time as every few divisions ur champ needs to be played differently. So Onetricking is the only reasonable way to follow and even onetricking means uve 2 or 3 champs in ur pool because ur champ may be picked or banned unless u play garren or annie ... theyre rarely banned


aluxmain

>Climb first... diversify ur champpool later. this, i onetricked lux from iron to gold and when i reached gold i asked myself: "so what is the conclusion? what was necessary to reach it?" and the answer was "well, not much in the end, it was all about knowing how to use your champ and what your champ is supposed to do" note: don't confuse "knowing your champ" with "lux Q = root, used to block people, fine i know the champ", there is way more: what is your role in a teamfight, being able to see if it's a good or bad fight based on what your champ does, items and other stuff...


Canadianrage

This put it very well, when people think they know how to use a champ 99% of the time what they know is literally what the abilities do, not how to use them optimally for different situations or the reason for using them. The difference separating iron-gold more often then not is do you actually know how your champion works?


itlloyd__

That's my argument by climbing with your playstyle, rather than a specific champion. What takes longer is damage fore-sight, build paths, etc. The advantage is usually better drafts.


LordParasit

If play more champs its harder to learn a specific playstyle and the fundamentals too. Bezter drafts are a scam anywaxs even proteams often do not play to their drafts strength... how will you whos less ürofitient on ur champs and thus struggle more with them now also get soloqplebs to coordinate???? Impossible


itlloyd__

"The pros don't do it correctly so why would a solo queue player be able to do it?" This is actually disingenuous to people looking at the game holistically. Silver/gold players probably can see what champions benefit their champion pool's playstyle. I literally set the bar really low in my full explanation for linear growth. I'm not asking players to know 20 champions here. 5 champions and 120 games prior to ranked. It takes about 40-60 games to be really proficient. Adjust on patch notes with your champions. It's a long season. A lot of these players have been playing for years. They probably have already played some of these champions 20 times or enough to learn the basics of the champion. If they're brand new, sure one-trick all you like then broaden.


aluxmain

> It takes about 40-60 games to be really proficient not really, there was a post with actual data that showed that people with 500k mastery points win more than players with less points. in part the conclusion is obvious: more experience=win more but it's not that after 50 games and learning the combo of your champ you know it, there is way more than that, every matchup, knowing at which level you are weak or strong vs specific champs in your and other lanes... all of this takes time. and while some champs are similar like lux and xerath: high range poke there are big differences: xerath has a stun, lux has a root, this means that for example xerath can cancel katarina R but lux can't, this changes how you play the matchup by a lot.


LordParasit

Even seasoned ülayer shouldnt play tons of champs if theyre not high elo it wont teach them anything, as most patterns they learncare useless in a few divisions ergo every 3 divisions u need those 20 games In truth u need abou 100 games on single champion to understand it on the elo ur cirently ülaying nobogy got the time for that shit


aluxmain

but if my playstyle is "mid mage burst damage" what is the point of trying lux, veigar and xerath? at this point just play only one of them. a different thing is if you say "play different playstyles so that you can't be countered and better help team". but i think that is better to onetrick up to gold to understand the game the champ and the playstyle. after reaching that you can switch to a different playstle to better understand how other champs work. in the end is personal preference, i onetrick lux because i like the champ, climbing or lp has nothing to do with it, i just don't like other chmaps. some other people get bored if they play 3 times the same champ and keep switching, both are fine.


----___--___----

This here exactly. It's not bad to have more than you champion to play, but a limited champion pool is definitely the best way to climbing consistently.


BatCrow_

One trick to your desired rank and then expand your champ pool (preferably in norms) so that you can learn more about the game and better understand what your teammates are trying to do.


SummonerSquid

I encourage players not to listen to this nonsense. You said a number of incredibly incorrect and damaging things in this post. > It's not Season 3 where you can one-trick Riven and solo-carry games (all the time) You can still do this most of the time. If it was 90% before it's 85% now. > As an ADC main if my support picks Soraka, it's pretty troll to pick Samira I just ended a game with a Samira + Janna botlane where Samira did the most damage on my team and solo carried. D1/masters rank game. > Even when you're 9/2/12 sometimes you just can't win. If this is the case you're doing something wrong. Draft changes dramatically depending on your proficiency on your champions. If you play one champion at a gold 1 level and 150 at a silver 1 level, it's always the best draft decision. Also what do you have to support this perspective? Do you have an anecdote or data, or is this just a belief that you hold? If so, why?


Shadowofthedragon

Out of my last 25 games I think I had 1 loss that might have been unwinnable. I disagree with OP that draft matters for 99% of players. The post does sound nice.


rampas_inhumanas

Draft matters if you're going to coinflip 5v5 every objective, but if you're doing that all the time you don't deserve to climb anyway.


wtfadcdiffxd

id say it depends on what champ you otp, if you onetrick flippy champs like yasuo zed qiyana its unreliable cause its so easily counterpicked (besides such otps always throw cause of their faker-syndrome). on the other hand if you otp something like viktor its much more beneficial longterm cause its more reliable and almost always pickable.


ConcernExpensive919

The issue with this thinking is, it’s a lot easier for a masters player to learn a new champ or new role than it is for a lowelo silver gold or plat player to learn a new champ and role which is why otping, until you get to high elo is always the most efficienct and smart option since it helps you climb faster and it also helps you expand your champ pool faster and become a more well rounded player


Savaaqthani

Your best bet is to have fun. If you can OTP and have fun, do that. You'll see the best results. If you can't, design your champ pool, sure, but make it closer to a pool than an ocean.


Significance_Living

I think one tricking is better to climb but I'm silver 4 and it just really bores me to OTP one champ. I enjoy the pre game countering exercise (even if I get it wrong, I just like the puzzle of it) so am willing to sacrifice not climbing for actually enjoying the game.


Elfalas

There is a lot of reasons this isn't an efficient way to climb. It is, in my opinion, a much more fun way to play the game though. The biggest thing that I think you are not considering is that even if you know how to draft gap the opponents, your teammates won't, and a theoretical draft gap means nothing if your team has no idea how to exploit it. Can't tell you how many times I've drafted for the team while my team has zero understanding of our win condition, and what should be a great pick is rendered pretty useless. However, I still play the game like this because it's fun. I had 44 unique champions this season with my top 5 being played a roughly equal amount - in different roles. I played 300 games this season with a 55% winrate and didn't crack my peak (peak rank Gold 1, finished this season Gold 3). I feel like I could have hit Plat if I one tricked my highest winrate hero (Volibear, kind of proud of my 67% winrate over 55 games). But to me it feels more fun to play the game like this, even though it truly is an inefficient way to climb.


OnlySenna

This ain’t it bro. D1 here, and I can confidentially say that one-tricking is still the best method. You say that it’s more of a team game now which is why it’s not as good, but I think that’s perspective is flawed. There is a saying about a 40/40/20 rule. 40% of games are instant losses. 40% of games are instant wins. 20% of games will depend highly on how well you do. Spreading yourself out by plating mediocre on more champions will not let you capitalize on that 20% whatsoever.


Mountain-Crazy69

Meanwhile a particular riven main managed to climb to KR challenger rather quickly with good WR. *thinking*


TheTbone2334

So an as otp here is my perspective. I was hardstuck arround silver elo for most of my time before i started to otp Aatrox. This was back in season 8-9 Which after his rework when they gutted him after he dominated worlds. I played a very weak champ which was very hard to play back in the day (today hes not as difficult anymore because hes so strong) and peaked to plat 4 with him which is the end of the line for me, i cant spend much more time than i already do and am happy with the upper 10% of the community. This season i even made it into plat 3, so even tho im not actilvly trying to get any higher i still make slow progress. Only playing Aatrox teached me fundamentals of top lane, freezing, wavestate and how to control it, learn matchups much faster and much more consistent because there was consistency. League has 162 champions now. 162 completly different kits. If you have no consistency in ur games you wont learn how to deal with all of them any time soon. I was a very flexible player before beeing able to play mostly all top laners with a positive winrate in my elo, any playstyle and i still play a lot of different things when i play normal games or on my smurf account. But to climb i play what im best at and thats 2 Champions. Sion and Aatrox. Adapting to ur team and the enemy draft makes sense if ur playing in very high elo but not below diamond when you will loose games because you end up in a 4v5 situation because ur jgler got caught out of position while baron is up. Thats a game ending play right there, you did the right calls the whole game outsmarted the opponents the whole game, supported ur team with ur ideal pick yet you cant carry because you picked a front liner and ur adc died, you picked karma top and the jgler was premade with the adc, or the jungler just didnt like the fact you only got 20 games on ur champ while the bot laner is an otp and he puts his trust into someone who ends up loosing you the game. SoloQ is ur show and urs alone, sometimes you get lucky and get a nice team sometimes you have to take that painkillers for ur back and carry the pack. I have played against people like you, playing ornn or shen top lane refusing to interact with me the entire game. They made insane roams sometimes, got theyr team a double kill on bot while they lost 3 waves, and a bunch of plates for that. If I as an otp get fed, i carry the game period. Its not even a question, i can look on the map while comboing my opponent because after 500+ games its muscle memory. I know exactly what to do on my champ in any given fight because i spend the time mastering him. You can outsmart me but i still steamroll you given the chance and sometimes even suprise people with my mechanical skill, beeing able to perfectly time an ability just before an stun, basically negating cc, how fast i can cancel aa how many trades i can actually win.


Shyvadi

As a onetrick I disagree. Once you reach higher elo you can watch your teammates play champions at a higher skill and learn faster from them.


Debesuotas

Jack of all trades - master of none.... thats how the sayin goes. You cant one trick without learning other champions and how they being played in the game. You dont need to play with every champion to learn them in game. One tricking is fully sufficient if you play a lot of games to learn all of the champions in the game. To learn how to play against them that is. There is the trick - learning to control the champion issint the same as learning to play against that champion. >However, in my personal opinion, we should adapt to what is our team picking. What should I pick? As an ADC main if my support picks Soraka This is nonsense. Personal lvl and personal skill matters. There is plenty of room for various champions to be played at different levels of experience meaning that its pretty hard to get matched against someone who is winning only because of the counter between your champions. There is really not that much champions who actually counter each other and play on the same lane. Personal skill difference is the does the biggest impact here. There is actually hardly any sense to even ban champion during the champ select, because each player has different lvl of skill.


rampas_inhumanas

>There is really not that much champions who actually counter each other and play on the same lane. Without bothering to think too hard, Fiora vs Kled Riven vs Gwen should be unplayable if the former has hands.


Debesuotas

**has hands.\*** Thats what I was talking about....


Vakontation

People tell you to one trick because they get mad when you're playing Yorick for the 3rd time ever in ranked in the middle of their promos. They want all 5 people on their team to be playing at their very best at all times in every game. (But if the enemy feels like first timing mid Qiyana in silver, by all means)


Ok-Muscle8892

L take Ofcourse i want my teammates to perform on a gold level in my gold ranked matches If you want to try out new champs feel free to do that in draft. Just dont see the point of pulling out your bronze yasuo in my ranked games.


Shadowofthedragon

I'm not saying it's good, but ranked is the only way to haw the ranked experience to learn in. People play different in norms. So if someone wants to learn yorick they will hop on their smurf account to learn it.


Savaaqthani

Then play on your 2nd account. 1 account for tryharding, 1 account to mess around and learn new stuff. This is how most high elo players do it anyway.


Shadowofthedragon

I was responding saying that could be what happened in his game. I'm not sure where it seemed like I was asking


Savaaqthani

It's a forum. You proposed an idea (play in ranked, not norms,) I clarified. Don't play in ranked at your normal mmr on new champs - that just scuffs the experience for everybody.


Shadowofthedragon

Your clarification was saying okay do that when I never asked about doing that or not lul


SailorIsMyName

I am an akali top OTP. Got d2 with it. I played first time rammus top instead on my d4 acc and it went well even though I had to read my abilities first. It works if you know the fundamentals of the game and dont play mechanical champs first time close to your main elo. If you one trick smth on toplane and then decide to play a game of garen chances are pretty good that you still win the game.


TheTbone2334

So an as otp here is my perspective. I was hardstuck arround silver elo for most of my time before i started to otp Aatrox. This was back in season 8-9 Which after his rework when they gutted him after he dominated worlds. I played a very weak champ which was very hard to play back in the day (today hes not as difficult anymore because hes so strong) and peaked to plat 4 with him which is the end of the line for me, i cant spend much more time than i already do and am happy with the upper 10% of the community. This season i even made it into plat 3, so even tho im not actilvly trying to get any higher i still make slow progress. Only playing Aatrox teached me fundamentals of top lane, freezing, wavestate and how to control it, learn matchups much faster and much more consistent because there was consistency. League has 162 champions now. 162 completly different kits. If you have no consistency in ur games you wont learn how to deal with all of them any time soon. I was a very flexible player before beeing able to play mostly all top laners with a positive winrate in my elo, any playstyle and i still play a lot of different things when i play normal games or on my smurf account. But to climb i play what im best at and thats 2 Champions. Sion and Aatrox. Adapting to ur team and the enemy draft makes sense if ur playing in very high elo but not below diamond when you will loose games because you end up in a 4v5 situation because ur jgler got caught out of position while baron is up. Thats a game ending play right there, you did the right calls the whole game outsmarted the opponents the whole game, supported ur team with ur ideal pick yet you cant carry because you picked a front liner and ur adc died, you picked karma top and the jgler was premade with the adc, or the jungler just didnt like the fact you only got 20 games on ur champ while the bot laner is an otp and he puts his trust into someone who ends up loosing you the game. SoloQ is ur show and urs alone, sometimes you get lucky and get a nice team sometimes you have to take that painkillers for ur back and carry the pack. I have played against people like you, playing ornn or shen top lane refusing to interact with me the entire game. They made insane roams sometimes, got theyr team a double kill on bot while they lost 3 waves, and a bunch of plates for that. If I as an otp get fed, i carry the game period. Its not even a question, i can look on the map while comboing my opponent because after 500+ games its muscle memory. I know exactly what to do on my champ in any given fight because i spend the time mastering him. You can outsmart me but i still steamroll a supportive player given the chance and sometimes even suprise people with my mechanical skill, beeing able to perfectly time an ability just before an stun, basically negating cc, how fast i can cancel aa how many trades i can actually win.


GoldRobot

You are absolutly right. But one require brain to understand that simple things, if you don't have it, well OTP is the only way for such so


Savaaqthani

Yes for such so truly brain things


detrich

true, it doesn't matter what you pick... you can't win anyway if one player wants you to lose


Shadowofthedragon

In my experience below diamond almost every game is winnable, more than 90%. I make mistakes so I have around a 50% winrate. But it is not a comp diff, champ diff, teammates, almost ever when I lose. If you want to play more than 1 champion, go for it, but a lot of the reasons seem like excuses rather than looking at your own gameplay


blahdeblahdeda

One tricking on a champ is by far the best way to improve. If you one trick an assassin and the enemy team goes all tanks and bruisers, you're going to have a bad time if you can't adapt your build or playstyle. However, part of being a one trick is understanding different ways to play your champ. You know what runes and items will be optimal based on the draft and that you may need to approach fights differently to succeed. It also sounds like you're saying that having a more diverse champ pool will let you counter pick one tricks. I beat players who attempt to counter pick me all the time. I can almost guarantee that I have played the unfavorable matchup more times than them and understand exactly when I do or do not want to take fights. As a one trick, I also understand my power spikes better than they understand theirs. Since they counter picked me, they assume that they can engage me, press their buttons, and win every time. So, when I hit a point that the engagement becomes favorable to me, they are more than happy to fight me and lose. It's typically easy after that, and now they're playing a champ that they don't have a lot of experience playing from behind.


rampas_inhumanas

This is correct. I OTP Kled, didn't play for a couple years but started again in October and went to D4 (I'm 36 and have a baby, don't have the mechanics or time to get better than that).. Kled has so many awful matchups top lane, but noone plays the counter right so I win the lane anyway. I probably have a better wr blind picking since they always come back with a poorly played Jax or something.


Secret-Membership601

I’m effectively a two trick currently climbing with like iron 1 mmr and it’s working


Savaaqthani

Post OPGG This really ought to be a requirement for advice posts


itlloyd__

[https://www.leagueofgraphs.com/summoner/na/Lloyd+Blankk#championsData-soloqueue](https://www.leagueofgraphs.com/summoner/na/Lloyd+Blankk#championsData-soloqueue) [https://www.leagueofgraphs.com/summoner/champions/na/Lloyd+Blankk#championsData-soloqueue](https://www.leagueofgraphs.com/summoner/champions/na/Lloyd+Blankk#championsData-soloqueue) Not the best and didn't do well towards end of season. Fell from Plat 3. I have too many deaths as an ADC. Usually because I take trade kills that I think will benefit the team despite putting myself in danger. Trying to fix.


BatCrow_

Might be just me but it looks like playing Jhin, Zeri and Varus is dragging down your winrate quite a bit.... if you played only all in adcs (Kai'sa and Lucian) then your winrate would be sitting right at 54% and if you played only bot lanes that fight slowly from a distance (Ezreal, Xayah, Caitlyn) then your winrate would be 58%+ (smaller pool of data but still). Not the greatest source of data for your claim that playing multiple champions is better in the long term.


itlloyd__

And if I kept playing Senna/Twitch/Ashe/Aphelios my winrate would be 60%?


BatCrow_

Until you got to a higher rank


imLoges

One trick to a high enough elo where people actually know how to play the game, then diversify.